FRENCH tennis prodigy Sophie Erre was the talk of the $50,000 Ladies Indoor Challenger Tennis Tournament in Southampton yesterday - but nobody knew quite what to say.

"I really can't tell you much about her," admitted referee Dr Sultan Gangii. "She is a qualifier - so she has come through a lot of matches to reach the semi-finals. She is ranked 285 in the world but she beat the number five seed here and then put out another French player from the same school as her but ranked much higher."

Mystery girl Erre had her second three-set battle in a row at the Hampshire Tennis & Health Club yesterday, where the tournament - the third most important for women players in this country - is being staged.

But she followed up her wins over fifth-seeded Italian Adriana Serra-Zanetti, who is world ranked at 111, and French rival Lea Ghirardi (157) with a battling performance against Denmark's Eva Dyrberg to win 2-6 6-3 6-2.

Now she faces a semi-final clash today with top-seeded Els Callens of Belgium, conqueror of two top British players, who yesterday beat Germany's Sandra Kloesel in three sets.

The second seed is also still in the tournament, but only just. Austria's Patricia Wartusch was a set and 5-2 down against Germany's Julia Abe but bounced back to win 5-7 7-6 6-2.

Her semi-final opponent today will be Hungarian Petra Mandula, who had a more straightforward quarter-final victory - 7-5 6-2 against Sandra Nacuk, the fourth-seeded Yugoslav, who is ranked 94th in the world.

Today's semi-finals - and tomorrow's finals - start with the singles at 11am. There are still a few tickets, which are available by telephoning Southampton 361122.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.